Leadership High Moving to New Site

Leadership High School, currently housed on the top floor of Denman Middle School, will return to its former home in a newly remodeled building just down the block from Denman, San Francisco Unified School District officials have confirmed.

Founded in 1997 with a core curriculum focused on college prep, the 260 student
school has bounced around to several different locations over the years, Beth Silbergeld, principal of Leadership High said in an interview.

“We are planning to move to begin our second semester at the new site, in January, as construction should be on schedule to finish by the end of December,” Silbergeld said in an e-mail.

Construction on the former San Miguel Elementary school at 300 Seneca Avenue is part of a $15 million dollar remodel including code updates, fire, life and safety improvements and ADA compliance, Heidi Anderson, an SFUSD official said in an e-mail.

The remodel is on schedule, and the additional space should allow the school to grow to 320 students over the next few years, Silbergeld said. Leadership won’t be severing all ties to Denman, however. It will still share a gymnasium and auditorium, she added.

Leadership High School originally lived at Golden Gate University, 536 Mission Street.
After three years, it moved into the San Miguel site where it lived for six years before being forced to move mid year because the building was no longer up to code. LHS moved into Burton High school in 2006 before decamping to Denman in 2008 where it currently resides.

As a public charter school, Leadership has its own admissions process like its charter brethren City Arts & Tech High school in the Excelsior, and students are required to complete courses that qualify them for admission to a UC or Cal State school.

Once Leadership moves out of the top floor of Denman, the middle school plans to
use the space for its own students, complete with a Makers Lab that will include 3D printing capabilities, Teresa Shipp, Denman’s principal said in an e-mail.